The technology relates to a steering assistance control apparatus that may be mounted on a vehicle.
A follow-up steering control function has been known as one example of steering assistance functions. The follow-up steering control function may allow a lateral position of an own vehicle to follow a predetermined follow-up target. Non-limiting examples of the follow-up target may include middle of a traveling lane and a preceding vehicle.
The follow-up steering control may involve: detecting a position of the steering follow-up target such as the preceding vehicle, by a sensor or inter-vehicular communication; calculating a lateral positional deviation between the position of the target and the own vehicle; calculating a steering-related control target value, based on the positional deviation; and driving a steering mechanism, based on the control target value. Non-limiting examples of the sensor may include a camera that captures an image ahead of the own vehicle.
The follow-up steering control may lead to possibility that, when the preceding vehicle meanders, the own vehicle follows the meandering of the preceding vehicle. Such meandering of the own vehicle may cause a driver to feel incongruous.
To address this inconvenience, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2000-20896 discloses a technique that focuses on temporal variation in the lateral positional deviation between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle, in particular, cycles of the variation. The technique proposes adjustment of a control gain in accordance with the cycles, to restrain the follow-up to the meandering of the preceding vehicle.